Valentine's Day

We had an awesome Valentine's Day. Since my birthday is at the end of January and M's is at the beginning of February, we usually don't do much along the lines of gifts (though he did get me flowers:), but I do always like to do a little something outside of our normal routine to keep it special.

One of our favorite things to do before we had Bear was go out for fondue. We liked it so much that we bought a fondue set a few years ago when we were living in Chicago. We have since gotten sooo much use out of it, but not really as much since Bear was born, so that was our V-day plan. Due to food allergies we skipped the cheese course this time around, which was fine with me because I am always so ridiculously full after the cheese course anyway. Instead I just did the broth with different meats and seafood and then a chocolate course for dessert- yum! We saved the chocolate for after we put Bear to bed and we sat and talked (something I feel like we hardly ever get to do these days) and ate chocolate fondue together. We shared a nice bottle of wine and I was the perfect amount of tipsy. It was heavenly.

Well, we tried..

Vegan chocolate almond smoothie- because everyone deserves a little chocolate on Valentine's Day:)

My little Cupid

A couple Valentine's presents for Bear

Heart Breaker is right

Attempting a walk outside

My Valentines

Tulips from M- my fav

Fondue dinner! Steak, chicken, shrimp, and baby portabellas

Bear's first fondue experience

Dessert! To make the chocolate I used a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, a bar of 85% cacao dark chocolate, and chocolate almond milk

The freezing cold weather is driving me absolutely bonkers. I woke up to the sound of snowplows again this morning, blah. We've definitely been getting a little stir crazy, so over the weekend we took Bear to an indoor playground in town. It's free for adults and children under 2, so we figured we might as well give it a shot.

Most of the equipment they have is for older kids, but Bear still had a good time running around like crazy and watching the other kids.

Testing out the baby slide

Not so sure about the tire swing

Trampolining

Playhouse

And a few other recent pics..

Partners in crime

Window crayons! So fun!

Venturing out to the library again today..

Life

My mom has skin cancer. She called me the other day and told me that the few spots they tested on her face a couple weeks back were indeed cancerous. Luckily they said that as long as she got them removed she would most likely be fine. My sister who is a doctor talked to a few people where she lives in Cincinnati and my mom went down there yesterday for surgery. My sister said my mom was a little nervous going in, but my dad was with her and they said afterward that they think they got everything, so she most likely won't have to have any more surgery.

I know that she's going to be fine. She has to be. It's just hard being far away from family during times like these. I wish so badly that I could have at least been there to give her a hug, but I suppose that's how life goes and we just have to make the best of it. Bear and I will be making a trip to see my parents next weekend, so I'll just have to save my hugs until then.

In other news, we've been spending most of our time at the gym and across the street at the library. I'm itching for some warmer weather so that we can get outside, but being only February, I'm guessing we'll have to wait a while. I did get to go out for girls' night last night, which I haven't done in forever. We went to trivia night at one of the bars here and had drinks and talked about husbands, babies, and everything else. We've decided to do it every other week, with the husbands going the weeks in between. I think it will be good for both M and I to get out with friends sans Bear.

 Speaking of Bear, he has been very into books lately. We probably read 30+ a day, including the 15+ readings of "Llama Llama Zippity-Zoom." I actually caught him like this the other day, "reading" to himself. So cute.

Reading:)

The library is our go-to place when we have nothing else planned for the day. It's hard to see cars and people go by our place since we live 3 stories up, so it's a special treat to people/truck watch when we go to the library.

Watching cars go by at the library

Open gym again. They set up an obstacle course this week and of course he was in Heaven.

He stuck the landing;)

Another library day..

Judging..

Computing..

You mean people actually come to the library to read?

Heading out for girls night!

Bear loooves smoothies (who doesn't?!) and I love them because I can hide all kinds of veggies and other good stuff in them. This one was pear, apples, kale, hemp milk, and flax and chia seed.

Sipping on our green smoothies

Riding his bike

Recent Events In Photos

Being home with Bear has been so fun, but since it's winter in the Midwest, we tend to get a little restless at times. Here's a little overview of what we've been up to and how we keep busy!

Looking dapper for school pictures

Morning yoga

Green smoothies (kale, banana, apples, hemp milk, and Sunbutter)

Reusable pouches by Little Green Pouch- genius

Open gym!

I had to drag him out of the foam pit- he was in heaven

Post-gym lunch date with his lady friend

My attempt at a DIY infinity scarf

His favorite thing is bringing me his shoes to put on him. The cowboy boots are a popular choice.

This was just too sweet for me to resist

Heading out to do what we do best- shop!

Afternoon trip to the coffee shop downstairs

Toddler art!

Coloring

Being a toddler

Eyebrow raise- one of the many facial expressions he has perfected

Side-eyeing the cold weather on our way to the library

Who needs to go outside when you can bring the snow in?

Saturday morning cartoons with Dad

On REALLY boring days we run the halls and ride the elevators- he gets a huge kick out of it

Like father, like son

New haircut! I did it myself, so it's not perfect.

$1.99 toy golf club from Target = favorite toy of all time

Bye-bye baby curls:(

Cupcakes for M's birthday. No, I didn't make them, nor did I get to eat them.

:)

So there you have it- our past month or so in a nutshell.